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Building financially capable communities: our pathways to success
International Conference, Auckland, New Zealand
November 28 - 30, 2019
The Westpac Massey Fin-Ed Centre in collaboration with Alliance of Financial Capability Academics (AFCA) held its first international academic and practitioner conference in Auckland, New Zealand from 28-30 November 2019.
The theme for the conference was “Building financially capable communities: our pathways to success”
Conference Presentations
Our Opening Addresses
Hon.Kris Faafoi
Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media, Government Digital Services and the Associate Minister of Housing (Public Housing)
Our Keynote Presentations
Professor Dennis Philip
Financial consumer protection in the digital age
Prof Dennis Philip is a Professor in Finance at Durham University Business School and Director of the Centre for Banking, Institutions and Development (CBID).
His research interest lies in understanding financial decision-making of firms and households, and has received international attention for its far-reaching impact in academia and practice: he has research articles published in highly visible journals such as Review of Finance and Journal of Banking and Finance; and he is engaged in several policy-led research projects in emerging economies, particularly in the areas of financial literacy and access to finance.
His research has been funded by the financial industry, central banks and recently the European Commission, and he is on the advisory board of several third-sector organisations specialising in financial skills and capability.
Dr Carly Sawatzki
Rethinking the possibilities for preparing a financially capable citizenry through school education
Dr Carly Sawatzki is interested in how young people become financially capable within families, communities, and schools.
She is rapidly gaining national and international recognition for her research, which focuses on the design of financial literacy tasks that reveal how young people think, feel and respond to financial problems. Carly has published in prestigious international journals and led curriculum and research consultancies for Australian government agencies. She is regularly engaged by teacher associations, being recognised as a dynamic, thought-provoking presenter who challenges thinking, promotes critical conversation and inspires innovation. Carly writes for The Conversation and is regularly interviewed by ABC Radio.
Dr Dee Warmath
The Role of Hope in Financial Well-Being
Dr Warmath is an Assistant Professor of Consumer Economics in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences at the University of Georgia (USA). She earned her Ph.D. in Consumer Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Master’s in Sociology from Vanderbilt University.
Her research examines the role of shared decision making and decision skill in well-being with a focus on the domains of finances and health. She served as the Principal Investigator for the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection on its project to define and measure financial well-being, as well as test hypotheses of its drivers.
Day One - Academic Sessions | 28th November
Victoria Stace
Payday Lenders – Friend or Foe?
Victoria Stace is a lecturer in the Law Faculty at Victoria University.
Before joining the Law Faculty she was a commercial lawyer in private practice in Wellington and was for a time a partner at Chapman Tripp in the financial services area. She now teaches commercial law and insolvency law at Victoria University.
She has been extensively involved in research on the Consumer Credit Law reforms, working closely with the National Building Financial Capability Trust (FinCap) since May 2018 on submissions and research papers.
Dr Jozica Kutin and Professor Roslyn Russell
Developing economic abuse prevention campaigns for emerging adults: codesign, design sprints and collaborative community partnerships
Jozica Kutin is a researcher in the School of Economics, Finance and Marketing at RMIT University, Australia. Her research focusses on economic abuse in young adult relationships. Her professional background is forensic psychology. For the last 6 years at RMIT her research has focused on financial capabilities, financial wellbeing and the evaluation financial education programs. In 2018 Jozica was awarded the RMIT HDR Prize for Research Impact for her PhD research in economic abuse.
Prof Roslyn Russell is a professor within the School of Economics, Finance and Marketing at RMIT University, Australia. Roslyn is an appointed member of the Australian Government Financial Literacy Board. Roslyn has been researching financial capabilities and financial wellbeing for more than 15 years. Most of Roslyn’s research is for industry including finance, government and community sectors. Roslyn’s work has explored the financial capabilities of women, older people, people with disability and victims/survivors of family violence. Other research topics include pay day lending in Australia, saving behaviour and the role of financial education programs in improving the financial wellbeing of lower-income households.
Dr Michelle Reyers and Dr Adnan Balloch
Self-efficacy and household economic well-being
Dr Michelle Reyers is a senior lecturer in the School of Economics and Finance at Massey University. She received her PhD from the University of Pretoria in 2014.
Her research relates to financial decision making and behavioural aspects connected to these decisions. More specifically, she studies consumer financial decision making focusing on financial capability, considering how knowledge, skills, confidence and attitude relate to financial decisions. She has published articles in journals such as Journal of Economic Psychology and International Journal of Consumer Studies. She is a CFA® Charter holder and, prior to her academic career, spent 10 years working in the finance industry.
Dr Adnan Balloch is a Senior Lecturer in Finance at Massey University. Previously, Adnan worked as Program Leader in Accounting and Finance at Aberystwyth University and as Consultant at Financial Advisory and Consulting department of Deloitte.
Adnan was awarded full PhD funding from Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the UK and received Best Thesis Award in Durham University Business School in 2015. Adnan has published article in Review of Finance journal and his current research focusses on emotional wellbeing, non-cognitive skills and financial distress. Adnan is also working with Westpac Massey Fin-Ed Centre on number of projects for private and public institutions.
Dr Jodie Hunter
There are different ways of saving money: Pāsifika students’ funds of financial knowledge.
Dr Jodie Hunter is a Senior Lecturer at Massey University in Mathematics Education and Pacific Education. She currently co-leads a large-scale professional learning and development project called “Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities”.
This work aims to transform mathematics classrooms with a focus on both culturally responsive and sustaining practice and ambitious pedagogy.
Dr Steve Agnew
A Pilot Study of the Efficacy of University Student Financial Dairies
Steve Agnew is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics and Finance at the University of Canterbury, where he has been employed for fourteen years.
His recent work has focused primarily on the financial socialisation of students in the home.
His most recent work “Empirical measurement of the financial socialisation of children by parents” was a 2019 Emerald Publishers Literati award winner.
Day Two - Academic Sessions | 29th November
Professor Bernadene de Clercq
Tax and financial education: Concepts, Goals and Measurement
Under her leadership, the Personal Finance Research Unit at Unisa conducted research regarding the financial position of households in South Africa. Prof de Clercq is also involved in the development of the postgraduate research program in the Department of Taxation. She completed her doctoral studies in the field of personal finance and has been actively involved in research regarding financial wellness, financial capability and financial education. This includes the interlinkages between financial and tax literacy as one of the new developing areas.
She is a member of the OECD/INFE Research Committee, Alliance of Financial Capability Academics (AFCA) and the South African National Committee on Financial Education (NCFE). The NCFE is focused on coordinating, monitoring and developing financial education in South Africa.
Professor Andy Lymer
Further improving our understanding of tax awareness, tax literacy and tax morale of young adults
Professor Andy Lymer is a Professor of Accounting and Taxation in the Birmingham Business School and Director of the Research Centre for Household Assets and Savings Management (CHASM) – a research centre addressing all aspects of personal financial wellbeing.
Elizabeth Mitchell
The impact of divorce or separation on the financial wellbeing of Australian women
Elizabeth is currently engaged in research for her PHD at Griffith University in the field of financial literacy.
She has a background as a secondary teacher and midwife prior to being a public practice accountant. It was in her accounting career that she witnessed the profound effects of financial literacy on the financial wellbeing of clients.
Her background in accounting, health and wellbeing and education, have culminated in a desire to research the impact of financial literacy, capability and wellbeing on vulnerable groups. At present she is the Head of Program for the Bachelor of Accounting at Melbourne Polytechnic.
Dr Toni Chardon
Sharing the importance of financial (and tax) capability through situated learning: ways to educate and improve student learning outcomes in higher education
Dr Toni Chardon is a Senior Lecturer in Taxation Law in the School of Law and Justice at the University of Southern QLD in Toowoomba. Toni’s research is primarily around taxation literacy and how improving basic levels of taxation knowledge and confidence can play a role in overall financial capability. Currently, Toni is working on a project exploring professional advisor’s views on financial and tax literacy and whether they take active steps in improving the financial capability of their clients.
Professor Alison Preston
Explaining the gender gap in self-employment: the role of financial literacy
Alison is a Professor of Economics at the University of Western Australia (UWA) with a background in labour and feminist economics.
Her recent work with Professor Robert Wright (University of Glasgow) seeks to understand why women are, on average, less financially literate than men. It also examines the consequences associated with large gender gaps in financial literacy.
Alison was born in New Zealand (Takapuna) but grew up in Scotland. She completed her undergraduate degree in economics at Strathclyde University before moving to Australia in 1987. She was awarded her PhD in economics and industrial relations from UWA in 1999.
Dr Tracey West
Financial Socialisation of Australian University Students: Differences in Gender
Dr Tracey West has a strong background in household finance, with several publications on household finance, financial literacy and financial planning issues, including a PhD thesis completed in 2016.
Recent work has been published in Economic Notes, Financial Counselling and Planning, Financial Planning Research Journal, Journal of Family and Economic Issues, JASSA, the Consumer Interests Annual. This work contributes to knowledge on investor behaviour, informing curriculum development and guidance for advisors in the financial services industry. She currently teaches Behavioural Finance and Wealth Management at Griffith University, Australia.
Day Three - Practitioners Day | 30th November
Robert Drake
Designing financial wellbeing programs that work, using program logic
Robert is Director of the international consultancy firm SmartSteps. He specialises in strategic advice on the design and evaluation of effective programs and national strategies for financial capability.
He has worked on national strategies in Australia, Indonesia, Ukraine and Saudi Arabia. Robert previously lead the financial literacy team at ASIC and the development of the MoneySmart website. In 2014 - 2018 Robert oversaw a $17 million grants program at Financial Literacy Australia (now Ecstra Foundation). Robert has undertaken an honours degree in social science, legal studies, a graduate diploma in financial planning and a masters of evaluation.
Tim Barnett
Local delivery of financial capability – lessons from Aotearoa
Tim Barnett is FinCap inaugural Chief Executive. He has significant NGO management and leadership experience backed up by 15 years full-time political service, 17 years of engagement in his partner’s hapū and a range of community-level volunteer involvements. This has been delivered in four continents and multiple cultural environments. He uses his variety of experiences to build and deliver social change. Tim is passionate about the potential of Financial Mentors and local financial capability and budgeting services to end financial hardship in New Zealand.
Dr Lillian Koh Noi Keng
Assessing the Impact of a Financial Literacy Program on Entrepreneurship Intention
Having served 17 years in Ministry of Education, Singapore and another 17 years in National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technology University (NTU), Dr Koh is now spearheading the new Fintech Academy in Singapore, working closely with the agencies driving Fintech in Singapore and beyond. She is advisor to the 5,000 member strong NTU Investment Interactive Club (NTU-IIC). Her success stories for nationwide implementation of financial literacy programmes in Singapore schools and innovative pedagogies earned her invites to many countries to help kick-start their financial literacy programmes.
She was also invited as Visiting Professor to universities in Sydney, Australia and Paris, France.
Matalena Leaupepe, Monika Ciolek and Sonya Cameron
The Safer Credit and Financial Inclusion strategy: a collaborative journey between government, the financial services industry and the community sector
The cross-government team that has led the development of the Safer Credit and Financial Inclusion strategy include:
Matalena Leaupepe - Strategy Lead, and Director of the Government Centre for Disputes Resolution: Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
Monika Ciolek - Principal Policy Advisor, Competition and Consumer Policy, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
Sonya Cameron - Senior Analyst, Building Financial Capability, Ministry of Social Development
Cyma Parbhu
Spring: Growing financial wellbeing: Development of a personalised and incentivised digital platform for positive change
Employed by The Ministry of Social Development, Cyma is part of Spring’s founding team and continues to focus her energy on this project.
Cyma is from Wellington and works in the Operations, Creatives and Marketing of Spring. She has a background in Design Innovation and other creatives.
Mariameno Kapa-Kingi
Poverty in Paradise
No Te Aupouri me Ngati Kahu ki Whaingaroa
I live and work across Taitokerau and Muriwhenua through to Waikato Tainui. I am a strong advocate for whānau rangatiratanga in the context of hapu and iwi growth and development.
I have chosen to work inside Māori owned and operated organisations for over 40 years as well as in the Social, Justice and Health sector agencies. I know where I am best suited to influence and bring about real results in real time with whānau. At the risk of stating the obvious we are the ones we’ve been waiting for.